Thieves of Bay Street: How Banks, Brokerages and the Wealthy Steal Billions from Canadians

by Bruce Livesey

Overview

A newsmaking exposé about why Canada's financial industry is a haven for fraud.
 
Beneath the veneer of stability that saw Canada's banking sector through the financial crash of 2008, investigative reporter Bruce Livesey has uncovered a rampant failure of epidemic proportions. Though no large financial institution has recently gone bust in this country, white-collar criminals, scam artists, Ponzi schemers and organized crime, from the Hells Angels to the Russian mafia, know that Canada is the place in the Western world to rip off investors. And the fraudsters do so with little fear of being caught and punished.
 
Thieves of Bay Street investigates Canada's biggest financial scandals of recent years. Readers will learn what banks do with investors' money and what happens when they lose it. They will meet the bogus investment gurus, the brokers who lose money with both reckless abandon and impunity, the bankers who squander money in toxic investments, the lawyers who protect them and the regulators who do nothing to keep them from doing it again. And most importantly, they'll meet the victims who are demanding that our vaunted banking sector finally come clean on its dirtiest secret.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307359650
Publisher:	Random House of Canada, Limited
Publication date:	03/27/2012
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

BRUCE LIVESEY is an award-winning investigative journalist. His writing has appeared in most major magazines and newspapers in Canada. He also has extensive experience as a television producer, working for the investigative unit of CBC TV's The National, the fifth estate and CBC News Sunday, as well as outside Canada for a co-production of PBS Frontline and the New York Times, Al Jazeera English and Al Gore's Current TV. He is a co-winner of a Dupont Award, one of the most prestigious US television awards, and has been nominated for 2 Geminis and 3 national magazine awards, winning in 2008. He lives and works in Toronto.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Making Out Like Bandits 13

2 Rise of Bay Street, Death of Main Street 31

3 Pillaging Stelco 43

4 Plundering Nortel 53

5 How to Corrupt a Stock Market 67

6 Pauperism by a Thousand Cuts 85

7 Brokers Gone Wild: A Rogues' Gallery 95

8 Bankers Behaving Badly 113

9 Subprime Horror: The Canadian Connection 127

10 Tales from the Crypt: The Rise of Shadow Banking 147

11 The Ghost Thief 165

12 Ponzi Schemata 173

13 No Help in Sight 183

14 The Enablers 199

15 Kissing Cousins: The Regulators 221

16 Not to Be Trusted 241

Afterword 255

Source Notes 262

Acknowledgements 299

Index 301

Editorial Reviews

FINALIST 2013 – Arthur Ellis Awards—Best Crime Non-Fiction

"Excellent.... Livesey arms investors with a sense of hope and purpose with recommendations on how to be more protective and proactive in avoiding losses in the future.... Thieves is well written, easy to read and packs a punch, chapter after chapter."
—The Globe and Mail

"Essential reading not only for those with money to invest, but anyone concerned about the path to social and economic ruin we are following."
—The Record (Kitchener)

"Compelling.... Livesey's writing is punchy and persuasive, fuelled by intelligence."
—Winnipeg Free Press

From the Publisher